The History of the Mystery of Iniquity at Work Today
Last
Updated:
04/29/2021 21:07 |
|
|
On this page, jump to:
Other
Links:
I have recently begun coming across seemingly related stories that I
believe may be God exposing the spirit of this world to those watching.
So I would like to share that with you. If you agree, share it with others.
I would also recommend reading
Thought: Voice of the Spirit Realm
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was
more subtil6175
than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said
unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?
We see in the above scripture the association of the serpent with Satan.
Our relationship with sin is similar to a snake eating its prey. It swallows
us whole, surrounding us while it slowly eats away at us until we are no
more what we used to be. Subtle is crafty and smooth, the type that can
and do take advantage of others for their personal gain and corrupt the
minds of innocents with thoughts and ideas from the dark side of the spirit
realm. What is so effective about this force is how subtle it really is,
yet how damaging it has become. As you will see, these dark sentences can
be traced back to particular people and times in history, all working to
systematically destroy the foundation of God and family the most effective
way, the education of young impressionable minds.
I just watched a story on the news showing the absolute corruption in
politics that both sides are engaging in. My friends, it pains me to see
this information, but given what God has shown me in my search for Truth
leading to this point, I can no longer deny some of the things I'm learning
that fit with Bible prophecy. I accept that a fallen angel of light is more
crafty and subtle than the greatest minds of humanity out there because
he has crept in ideas of cancer that are eating away at the very values
of God and catering to to the selfishness and pride of willingly ignorant
men and women.
2 Peter 3:3-14 Knowing this first,
that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for
since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from
the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant
of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was,
being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth,
which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. [Matthew 24:37-39]
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness;
but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and
hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being
on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved,
seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found
of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2 Timothy 3 This know also, that
in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from
such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses,
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the
truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they
shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all
men, as their's also was. But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner
of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, Persecutions,
afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what
persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea,
and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and
being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast
learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned
them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures,
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works.
We are seeing the result in the news daily. I would like to share what
God has shown me, decide for yourself. Could it be that the master of deception
has pulled the wool over our eyes from before our fathers' were born? Having
the limited experience of not existing when those plans were put into place,
it is easy to see how generations can be misled with simple thoughts that
focus on self-fulfillment of worldly pleasures. Today's world has been blinded
to reality by spiritual ideas in direct contradiction to God's Word, narrowing
our focus to only the material and therefore keeping our minds on those
things. This is the battle for the hearts and minds of humanity. I hope
to share a trail of spiritual darkness in recent history that I believe
has led us to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the love of many being
so cold, the mystery of iniquity.
Ephesians 6:11,12 Put on the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
What are some examples of spiritual things? Read Galatians 5:13-26 Our
emotions are expressed physically, but the thoughts and the emotions
themselves have no physical properties. I believe that thought is the voice
of the spirit realm. Thoughts are not bounded by time. They pass from generation
to generation. We can see how thoughts and ideas can potentially corrupt
the spirit of an individual. That's why we must guard our thoughts. However,
the serpent is more subtle and so is the sin that is eating out this world.
The cancer is becoming evident in the daily news. It all started by pulling
the wool over the eyes of the world with ideas that focused on fulfilling
the desires of the flesh, denying the spiritual and the God who created
them both, and doing so under the cloak of science.
The earliest in recent history I've tracked back is with
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). What first led me to examine this
man was Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination,
written by Nieves de Madariaga Mathews (1917-2003). Who is she?
Herb L. Peters
and Constance Cumbeys'
research into
Javier Solana (1942-) led me to Nieves, Javier's mother. Sir
Francis Bacon is also responsible for the
scientific method and has been credited as the creator of the
English essay and since the 1800s, some scholars have suggested that Bacon
was the author of works attributed to Shakespeare. Understanding that the
spiritual world cannot be perceived scientifically (i.e. It is based
on gathering observable, empirical, measurable evidence, subject to specific
principles of reasoning) and relying on just what is perceived with
the physical senses focuses you on just the physical. Teaching this methodology
in the school system brainwashes whole generations of children to only accept
what they can perceive while failing to teach the spiritual things. This
didn't used to be a problem until the education system was attacked by the
separation of church and state myth in more recent times. He
knew how to write and those writings, thoughts and ideas are still around
today. Those principles make up much of the scientific community today.
Chris Pinto, producer of Secret Mysteries of America's Beginnings, talk about the
Atlantis connection and America's beginnings linked with Sir Francis Bacon.
James Hutton (1726-1797) was a Scottish farmer and naturalist and is
known as the founder of modern geology. "His new theories placed him
into opposition with the then-popular
Neptunist theories of Abraham Gottlob Werner, that all rocks had precipitated
out of a single enormous flood. Hutton proposed that the interior of the
Earth was hot, and that this heat was the engine which drove the creation
of new rock: land was eroded by air and water and deposited as layers in
the sea; heat then consolidated the sediment into stone, and uplifted it
into new lands. This theory was dubbed "Plutonist" in contrast
to the flood-oriented theory. He also opened up the concept of deep time
for scientific purposes, in opposition to Catastrophism. Rather than accepting
that the earth was no more than a few thousand years old, he maintained
that the Earth must be much older (indeed, he went rather overboard and
asserted that the Earth was infinitely old). His main line of argument was
that the tremendous displacements and changes he was seeing did not happen
in a short period of time by means of catastrophe, but that processes still
happening on the Earth in the present day had caused them. As these processes
were very gradual, the Earth needed to be ancient, in order to allow time
for the changes. Before long, scientific inquiries provoked by his claims
had pushed back the age of the earth into the millions of years – still
too short when compared with what is known in the 21st century, but a distinct
improvement."
Wikipedia
This continued the use of scientific theory to call into question the Biblical
account.
Thomas
Chalmers (1780-1847) was a Scottish mathematician and a leader of the
Free Church of Scotland. In 1814 his "gap theory" became popular
in which he shared the idea that each "day" in the creation account
could have represented millions of years and therefore unwittingly preparing
the Christian community to accept the later presented theory of Evolution.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) furthered the focus on the physical
by providing an explanation of existence that didn't need a God and focused
on survival of the fittest. It is partially this every-man-for-himself attitude
that I feel corrupts young minds who are taught this idea without an understanding
of the spiritual and their lives are viewed as short times in life that
must be taken advantage of before death. This attitude promotes self and
fulfilling the desires of the flesh in the material world while not caring
for others and blindly walking off the cliff of eternity away from the love
of God by their own choices. We must guard our minds and our thought life
because our choices we have come from what we experience, learn, and search
out. As to the
creation
vs. evolution debate, it was over before anyone started arguing.
Darwin himself is quoted as saying the idea was not supported by the facts.
But in 1859 with the publishing of On the Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle
for Life, Evolution became the scientific theory that would be used
to further call into question the Biblical record and deceive the world
into accepting a lie.
More recently, the negative spiritual influence of
Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) further corrupted minds all over the world and continues
to do so by spreading the thoughts and ideas that are destroying the
spirits of our fellow man subtly under the cloak of music. Please watch
They Sold Their Souls For Rock N' Roll. Aleister Crowley
is the spirit behind many popular music artists of today. With the influence
of music and repetition, they have the power to program thoughts and they
are working towards what Crowley was. We all know that music helps memorization.
The only reason I remember the books of the Bible is because I can sing
the song. Many people "don't listen to the lyrics" not realizing
that whether they like it or not, the words are changed in their mind like
a mantra over and over. Nazi Germany's Minister for Public Enlightenment
and Propaganda
Joseph Goebbels said, "If you tell a lie big enough, and
keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
The big
lie. I think there's a reason Nazi Germany became such a threat.
It's interesting that anti-Semitism was behind it as well. That seems to
be a commonality with many things that point to the subtle serpent. Aleister's
mantra was "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."
Again, the spirit of self-serving that puffs up pride and uses it manipulate
others to fulfill your desires. With the lack of focus on the spiritual,
the only lusts that are understood are those of the flesh, sometimes at
any cost. This means breaking some of the 10 Commandments, which are
shadows of Love. True love is selfless.
“How this new Aeon of Horus will develop, how the Child will grow up, these
are for us to determine, growing up ourselves in the way of the Law
of Thelema under the enlightened guidance of the Master Therion.” “Therion
= 666” | Aleister Crowley,
“Father of the New Age Movement”
from The Book Of The Law
“Crowley’s Magick is a doctrine and a technique for establishing contact
with extra-terrestrial entities - spirits, demons... The whole of Crowley's
doctrine is based on The Book Of The Law in which the future of humanity
- the establishment on earth of a New Order - is outlined.”
| Aleister Crowley,Magick
John 15:10-14 If ye keep
my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept
my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as
I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye
do whatsoever I command you.
John 3:16 For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Anti-Semitism is rearing it's ugly head again through
Islam.
They are using the same principle to claim rights to "Palestine"
and cause all the problems in the Middle East. The world has taken their
side mostly and tend to blame Israel for taking the land.
The
facts are conveniently ignored. Unfortunately, the facts are usually
not chanted as loudly because they don't have an agenda, they just are.
So in my research, several commonalities showed up.
Javier Solana,
the head of the European Union and effective foreign minister of Europe,
has connections to the occult through his mother who defended Sir Francis
Bacon in her book. I wonder what kind of influence a mother has on a growing
son? Solana holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry (Received in Spain
in 1963), a Master's Degree obtained in Great Britain, and a doctorate in
physics; he is fond of saying that "in a previous incarnation I worked
as a professor in solid-state physics." I wonder how much the education
system, based on the scientific method brought to us by Bacon, has influenced
his thought as with the rest of humanity growing up in the modern scientific
indoctrination system? Looking at what thoughts Sir Francis Bacon brought
to humanity I began to notice an occultic connection to everything. This
is the mystery of iniquity. And to the world, many of these people are termed
great thinkers.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-12 And
now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth
will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked
be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,
and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose
coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might
be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Perhaps you already knew all this history, for me the connections are
new and the ramifications lend credence to Herb L. Peters research into
the European Union, Constance Cumbey's research into the New Age Movement,
and the
HIStory, Our Future collection of Bible
studies that show we are much closer to the end than most Christians are
aware. Indeed if that study is accurate, we have two years to raise awareness
in those we can reach with the Truth.
I am a watchman on the wall. God has put me here for such a time as this
to share what He is leading me to see. I am an imperfect vessel, but so
are we all. Yet God loves each one of us with an everlasting love. Let us
focus on the spiritual task at hand of awakening the bride of Christ together
while fighting the spirit of darkness in Spirit and in Truth. We are one
body and we all play different parts. However, God speaks to us each individually
if we listen. He speaks in a still, small voice which means you must quiet
the distractions of the world and get alone with God.
Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the LORD
with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In
all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not
wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
The following article shows the spiritual conditions that lead to political
decline. This spiritual deficiency will be used by those running the New
World Order to both bring down the nations and at the same time
Doomsayers for many years have been predicting the decline and fall
of this country. And while many of these short-term predictions have
proved inaccurate, there is some truth to the prevailing belief that
this nation will fall like every great nation before it. Apart from
revival and reformation, this nation is destined to decline.
The problem with many of these doomsayers is that while their prognosis
is right, their diagnosis is wrong. Yes, the future is bleak. But our
problem is not ultimately political, economic, or social, as these doomsayers
would have us believe. The decline of this nation (just as the decline
of every other nation) is due to spiritual factors. The political, economic,
and social problems we encounter are the symptoms of the spiritual deterioration
of a nation.
Just as there are spiritual principles that influence the life of
an individual, so there are political-spiritual principles that govern
the life of a nation. And though we may feel that these are obscure
and difficult to discern, in reality they are visible to anyone willing
to look at the record of history.
Our problem is that we don't really learn from history. George Santayana
said that “those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The philosopher Hegel said, “What experience and history teach
us is this: that people and government never have learned anything from
history or acted on principles deduced from it.” Or as Winston
Churchill said, “The one thing we have learned from history is
that we don't learn from history.”
The refrains that are often heard are: “It can't happen here,”
or “Our country is different.” But the reality is that nations
are born and die just like individuals. Their longevity may exceed the
average person's lifespan. But the reality is that nations also die.
History has shown that the average age of the great civilizations
is around two hundred years. Countries like Great Britain exceed the
average while other countries like the United States are just now reaching
the average age.
Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a
series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death.
Historians have listed these in ten stages.
The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith.
The second from spiritual faith to great courage.
The third stage moves from great courage to liberty.
The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance.
The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness.
The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency.
The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy.
The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay.
The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence.
And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage.
These are the ten stages through which the great civilizations have
gone. Notice the progression from bondage to liberty back to bondage.
The first generation throws off the shackles of bondage only to have
a later generation through apathy and indifference allow itself to once
again be enslaved.
This is the direction this and every other country is headed. The
book of Judges shows that the nation of Israel passed through these
same stages. And this country will do the same unless revival and reformation
break out and reverse the inexorable decline of this nation.
The Cycle of Nations
In his book
The End of Christendom, Malcolm Muggeridge makes this powerful
observation. He says:
I conclude that civilizations, like every other human creation,
wax and wane. By the nature of the case there can never be a lasting
civilization anymore than there can be a lasting spring or lasting
happiness in an individual life or a lasting stability in a society.
It's in the nature of man and of all that he constructs to perish,
and it must ever be so. The world is full of the debris of past
civilizations and others are known to have existed which have not
left any debris behind them but have just disappeared.
He goes on to say that...
whatever their ideology may be, from the Garden of Eden onwards
such dreams of lasting felicity have cropped up and no doubt always
will. But the realization is impossible for the simple reason that
a fallen creature like man though capable of conceiving perfection
and aspiring after it, is in himself and in his works forever imperfect.
Thus he is fated to exist in the no man's land between the perfection
he can conceive and the imperfection that characterizes his own
nature and everything he does.
Nations rise and nations fall. Every nation has followed this progression
from bondage to bondage. The nations of this century will be no different.
But let us not accept the Marxist notion that these are fixed and intractable
laws of history. Christians can point to unusual times when revival
has redirected the inexorable decline of a civilization. In the Old
Testament, Jonah saw revival postpone God's judgment of Nineveh. In
the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw a Protestant
Reformation transform Europe. And even in the history of the United
States the First and Second Great Awakenings changed individuals and
our society.
But apart from God's intervention, nations will decline and eventually
pass off the scene. Much of the Old Testament records the history of
the nation of Israel. It passed through these same stages and so will
every country in the world.
As Christians we must recognize that nations will rise and fall just
as individuals will be born and die. Our civilization will not last
indefinitely, but will eventually pass off the scene. Only God's Word
endures forever. We should not put our trust in the things of this world
for they are destined for destruction. Instead, we should put our faith
in God and His word.
The Decline of the Family
Nations most often fall from within, and this fall is usually due
to a decline in the moral and spiritual values in the family. As families
go, so goes a nation.
This has been the main premise of thinkers from British historian
J. D. Unwin to Russian sociologist Pitirim Sorokin who have studied
civilizations that have collapsed. In his book Our Dance Has Turned to Death, Carl Wilson identifies
the common pattern of family decline in ancient Greece and the Roman
Empire. Notice how these seven stages parallel what is happening in
our nation today. In the first stage, men ceased to lead their families
in worship. Spiritual and moral development became secondary. Their
view of God became naturalistic, mathematical, and mechanical.
In the second stage, men selfishly neglected care of their wives
and children to pursue material wealth, political and military power,
and cultural development. Material values began to dominate thought,
and the man began to exalt his own role as an individual. The third
stage involved a change in men's sexual values. Men who were preoccupied
with business or war either neglected their wives sexually or became
involved with lower-class women or with homosexuality. Ultimately, a
double standard of morality developed. The fourth stage affected women.
The role of women at home and with children lost value and status. Women
were neglected and their roles devalued. Soon they revolted to gain
access to material wealth and also freedom for sex outside marriage.
Women also began to minimize having sex relations to conceive children,
and the emphasis became sex for pleasure. Marriage laws were changed
to make divorce easy.
In the fifth stage, husbands and wives competed against each other
for money, home leadership, and the affection of their children. This
resulted in hostility and frustration and possible homosexuality in
the children. Many marriages ended in separation and divorce.
Many children were unwanted, aborted, abandoned, molested, and undisciplined.
The more undisciplined children became, the more social pressure there
was not to have children. The breakdown of the home produced anarchy.
In the sixth stage, selfish individualism grew and carried over into
society, fragmenting it into smaller and smaller group loyalties. The
nation was thus weakened by internal conflict. The decrease in the birthrate
produced an older population that had less ability to defend itself
and less will to do so, making the nation more vulnerable to its enemies.
Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority
diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting
the economy and government. Thus, by internal weakness and fragmentation
the societies came apart. There was no way to save them except by a
dictator who arose from within or by barbarians who invaded from without.
Although this is an ancient pattern of decline found in Greece and
Rome, it is relevant today. Families are the foundation of a nation.
When the family crumbles, the nation falls because nations are built
upon family units. They are the true driving social force. A nation
will not be strong unless the family is strong. That was true in the
ancient world and it is true today.
Social commentator Michael Novak, writing on the importance of the
family, said:
One unforgettable law has been learned through all the disasters
and injustices of the last thousand years: If things go well with
the family, life is worth living; when the family falters, life
falls apart.
The Decline of Values
There are many factors in the decline of a nation. Certainly a major
one is the breakdown of the family. But another potent but less perceptible
force is the power of ideas.
False ideas are bringing about the decline of western culture. Carl
F. H. Henry, in his book Twilight of a Great Civilization, says:
There is a new barbarism. This barbarism has embraced a new pagan
mentality . . . not simply rejecting the legacy of the West, but
embracing a new pagan mentality where there is no fixed truth.
Today we live in a world where biblical absolutes are ignored,
and unless we return to these biblical truths, our nation will continue
to decline.
To understand how we have arrived at this appalling situation, we
need to go back a century and look at the influence of five intellectual
leaders who still profoundly affect the modern world. The first person
is
Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In 1859 he published The Origin
of Species[full title The Origin of Species by means
of Natural Selection or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life] and later published The Descent
of Man. His writings blurred the distinction between humans and
animals since he taught that we are merely part of an evolutionary progression
from lower forms of life. Darwinism, as it came to be called, not only
affected the field of biology, but became the foundation for the fields
of anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
The second person is
Karl Marx (1818-1883). He and
Friedrich Engels published the
Communist Manifesto around 1850, and Marx devoted his life
to writing about the demise of capitalism and coming of communism. He
understood the importance of ideas. Marx once wrote: "Give me twenty-six
lead soldiers and I will conquer the world." The twenty-six lead
soldiers are the keys on a typewriter. The pervasive influence of communism
in the world today is testimony to the truthfulness of his statement.
The third person is
Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918). Although he may not be as
well known as the other two men mentioned, his influence was just as
profound. He was a German Bible scholar whose theory on the dating of
the Pentateuch completely transformed Old Testament studies.
Wellhausen argued that the early books of the Bible were not put
together by Moses but were gathered together many centuries later by
several different men called redactors who wove various strands together.
He and his disciples established an anti-supernatural
approach to the scriptures which is influential in most denominational
seminaries today.
The fourth person is
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He merely took the logical implications
of what Darwin was doing in biology and applied them to what today is
known as psychology and psychiatry. Freud argued that humans are basically
autonomous and therefore do not need to know God. Instead, we need to
know and understand ourselves since our problems stem from those secret
things that have evolved in our lives from our past.
A fifth person is
John Dewey (1859-1952). He is the founder of modern education
and published his first work, The School and Society, in 1899. John
Dewey was also one of the co-signers of the
Humanist Manifesto in 1933.
Dewey, like Darwin and Freud, believed that humans are autonomous.
They don't need to have an authority above them but can evolve their
our own system of education. Thus the very foundation of modern education
is anti-supernatural.
Ideas have consequences, and false ideas can bring down a nation.
The theories of these five men are having devastating consequences in
our nation and world. Unless we return to Biblical absolutes, our nation
will continue its decline.
Spiritual Decline
The decline and fall of nations is usually due to internal factors
rather than external threats. Even though some may have fallen to barbarians,
their demise ultimately came because of moral and spiritual weakness
which manifested itself as military weakness. Historians have listed
the stages in the decline of a nation. These should not be too surprising
to any student of the Old Testament. The stages of decline parallel
the stages through which the nation of Israel passed.
But neither should they surprise a student of the New Testament.
In the opening chapter of the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in
Rome, he traces a similar progression. In fact, Romans 1 shows the decline
of a civilization from a societal perspective. Looking at the Hellenistic
world of his time, he reflects on the progression of sin in a nation.
The first stage is when people turn from God to idolatry. Although
God has revealed Himself in nature to all men so that they are without
excuse, they nevertheless worship the creation instead of the Creator.
This is idolatry. In the past, this took the form of actual idol worship.
In our day, it takes the form of the worship of money or the worship
of self. In either case, it is idolatry. A further example of this is
a general lack of thankfulness. Although they have been prospered by
God, they are ungrateful. And when they are no longer looking to God
for wisdom and guidance, they become vain and futile and empty in their
imaginations. They no longer honor God, so their foolish hearts become
darkened. In professing to be wise, they have become fools.
The second stage is when men and women exchange their natural use
of sex for unnatural uses. Here the Apostle Paul says those four sobering
words, “God gave them over." In a society where lust- driven
sensuality and sexual perversion dominate, God gives them over to their
degrading passions and unnatural desires. The third stage is anarchy.
Once a society has rejected God's revelation, it is on its own. Moral
and social anarchy is the natural result. At this point God has given
the sinners over to a depraved mind and so they do things which are
not proper. This results in a society which is without understanding,
untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
The final stage is judgment. God's judgment rightly falls upon those
who practice idolatry and immorality. Certainly an eternal judgment
awaits those who are guilty, but a social judgment occurs when God gives
a nation over to its sinful practices.
Notice that this progression is not unique to the Hellenistic world
the Apostle Paul was living in. The progression from idolatry to sexual
perversion to anarchy to judgment is found throughout history.
In the times of Noah and Lot, there was the idolatry of greed, there
was sexual perversion and promiscuity, there was anarchy and violence,
and finally there was judgment. Throughout the history of the nation
of Israel there was idolatry, sexual perversion, anarchy (in which each
person did what was right in his own eyes), and finally judgment.
In the final "book" in Progress and Poverty (p.
475), Henry George steps back from economics to survey the human condition,
and asks: "What is the law of human progress?"
Is there some "great law under which human development goes
on"? Conventional economics textbooks do not address this question
at all. But, as George realized, it is an important issue which puts
economics in the greater context of human progress, both material and
cultural.
We know from history that human beings are progressive. Whereas most
animals continue the same pattern of life from one generation to another,
human beings pattern their lives from their cultures, which do evolve.
Sometimes, cultures devolve - knowledge gets lost, conditions worsen.
Is there some principle by which we can say, this favors improvement,
and that does not?
George dismisses the view that human social evolution follows the
same methods as biological natural selection - that in the struggle
for existence, the fittest races or nationalities survive and propagate.
Similarly, some have said that the individuals with the greatest ability
will live and propagate, while those with inferior abilities will not.
However, the hereditary survival of superior characteristics, which
does apply in biological evolution, does not explain human progress.
It is often the poor who have the greatest number of children. George
also points to “an enormous fact - the fixed, petrified civilizations”
(p. 481). Many societies have not progressed. The proposition that superior
human nationalities or families will continuously progress is refuted
by the periods of progression and periods of stagnation and retrogression
in civilizations such as the Chinese, the Mayan Indians, and the ancient
Egyptians.
The stagnation and decline of civilizations is not an exception or
isolated cases - “it is the universal rule. Every civilization
that the world has seen has had its period of vigorous growth, of arrest
and stagnation; its decline and fall” (p. 484). Our own civilization
is still young. That we have soared high “would prove nothing
as to its permanence and future advance, unless it be shown that it
is superior in those things which caused the ultimate failure of its
predecessors” (pp. 484-5). If social progress were due to natural
selection, “the general rule would be that progress would be continuous”
(p. 485), but “The earth is the tomb of the dead empires”
(p. 485).
Progress itself generates its own decline, under certain conditions: “that
what has destroyed all previous civilizations has been the conditions
produced by the growth of civilization itself” (p. 488).
“Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Watchman Bible Study | 2005 - 2024
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work herein is archived under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in reviewing the included information for personal use, non-profit research and educational purposes only. Ref.